Chapter 0230
My heart jumped up into my throat. Maria hadn’t noticed yet. Swallowing hard, I turned my head to tell her.
“Logan saw me.”
At once, we both looked back over, but by now, Logan was looking back at Tina, not paying us any
attention.
Are
you sure?” Maria asked.
“I’m positive,” I said. “He looked right at me.”
“Maybe you imagined it.”
“I didn’t imagine anything.” I said.
Then, Logan stood up from the table. I braced myself, thinking he might try coming over. Instead, he walked toward where the bathrooms were, out near the hostess station.
In his absence, Tina checked her makeup in her compact mirror. After adding fresh lipstick, she made kissy faces and even winked at her reflection.
“He would have come over if he saw us, right?” Maria asked.
Yeah, probably. Maybe I had imagined him looking at me after all. Though I was beginning to suspect that something else was going on.
Maybe he didn’t mind my being there….
Logan returned from the bathroom. Tina immediately perked as he rejoined her at their table.
At the same time, the waiter came to Maria and my table.
“You ladies are very lucky, indeed,” the waiter said. “A generous gentleman has requested that he pay for your check today.”
Maria and I looked at each other.
Logan hadn’t gone to the bathroom. He’d gone to the hostess to offer to pay our check!
How humiliating.
Maria lifted her menu. “I’ll take the chicken alfredo.”
“Maria,” I scolded.
“He can afford it, Hazel. We might as well enjoy a nice night out. Don’t forget what he’s done.”
Maria was kind not to say out loud that Logan had kissed another woman when he was supposed to be on an innocent only–for–appearances date.
I hadn’t forgotten.
Chicken Florentine, please,” I said, and handed the walter my menu.
Maria smiled proudly at me.
+26 BONUS
Chapter 0230
For the rest of our dinner, Maria and I watched Logan and Tina like hawks. We critiqued hand movements and body language, but from what we could tell, Logan was not reciprocating any of Tina’s overt
flirtations.
It could have been because Logan knew we were watching. I couldn’t discount that, not after that kiss. But it was nice to see him hold himself back now, at the very least.
After dinner, Logan excused himself again. This time he made direct eye contact with me as he stood. I’d worked with him long enough to know that meant he wanted me to follow him.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Maria as she perused the dessert menu.
Logan left the room first, I counted to ten and then I followed him.
Beyond the hostess station and the bathrooms was a second dining room that was likely used for events or parties. The lights were off in there now, and the room was empty, even of tables and chairs.
Logan paused a moment outside of it, waited for the hostess to turn her back, and then slipped into the room. Following his lead, I did the same. Pausing. Waiting until the hostess looked elsewhere. And then ducked into the dark unused dining room.
Immediately as I stepped into the darkness, a pair of arms wrapped around me and pushed me up against the wall, hiding us from the view of the lobby.
“Logan,” I half–sighed, half–scolded. It felt good to be so near him like this, trapped in the cage of his body. But I was also pissed as hell at him. “You kissed her.”
“She kissed me,” Logan said. “We’d barely said one word to each other in the past. Believe me, I was startled as hell by it. Did you see me push her away?”
I did, but the whole thing still left a bad taste in my mouth. “Her lips touched yours.”
Logan’s lips shouldn’t touch anyone but mine, as his wife.
Logan reached a hand up and cupped my cheek. Slowly, he tilted my face up toward his.
“It didn’t mean anything to me,” Logan said. “You are the only one I want to kiss. Your lips…” He swiped the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip. “Are the only ones I want touching mine.”
At once, he leaned down and kissed me. I melted at once. Relaxing against him, my curves melded against the hard lines of his body. Encouraged, he pressed me harder against the wall and deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue into my open mouth.
As our tongues danced, I clawed at his shoulders, desperate to keep him near, keep him mine.
He hummed happily against my mouth.
When we broke for air, I closed my eyes, nearly overwhelmed with my feelings for this man.
He pressed his forehead to mind and whispered, “I promise you, Hazel, as I’ve promised before. These dates are only a necessary front. My real feelings are only for you…
1 lowered my hand to his heart and placed my palm flat against his chest. Beneath it, I felt the gentle.
pounding of his heart. I tried to focus on that to help center my own conflicting emotions.
2/3
Chapter 0230
#25 BONUS
Knowing the reasons Logan had to go on these dates, I trusted that his feelings for me were true. But that certainly didn’t mean that I wanted to see him out on these dates, especially kissing another girl.
If they continued to date, as Logan intended, wouldn’t he eventually be expected to kiss Tina again? Hand holding. Kissing Spending the night. These were the progression of most relationships.
“You should tell her what’s really going on,” I said, after a moment.
“What?” Logan asked. Peeking open my eyes, the confusion on his face was apparent, scrunching up his brow. “Tina?”
“She likes you,” I said. “It isn’t fair to lead her on like this. She doesn’t have to know about me, but she should know that she doesn’t have an actual chance and that this is all a front.”
In a shitty situation, this was the least shitty thing they could do. It was also the only way to keep clear boundaries, so that she would not try to kiss him again or worse. I shuddered, imagining Tina taking Logan to a club or something and grinding up against him.
“She won’t handle the rejection well,” Logan said, considering my suggestion, at least.
“Better sooner than later,” I told him. “The rejection was always going to happen.”
Logan hummed again, thoughtful this time. “I’ll think it over,” he said. “But for right now, there’s something else I’d rather be doing…”
“What’s that?” I asked, and was promptly silenced with another kiss.
Logan was sure taking a long time covering the bill. Tina considered herself to be a very patient. individual, but how long would it take to pass over a credit card? Unless the help were being rude again.
At once, Tina decided that she had better investigate the matter herself. Logan was such a gentleman, he wouldn’t advocate for himself to the help. Truly, he needed Tina to intervene for him, if things were to ever run as smoothly as they ought.
With this in mind, Tina walked confidently toward the hostess station. Curiously, Logan wasn’t there. Perhaps he was in the bathroom.
Yet as Tina turned to go knock on the bathroom door, a flash of movement in the darkened, unused dining room caught her eye.
Following the movement, she entered the room.
Where she found her new boyfriend kissing her new friend.
Natalie
That skank
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0290
Knowing the reasons Logan had to go on these dates, trusted that his feelings for me were true. But that certainly didn’t mean that I wanted to see him out on these dates, especially kissing another girl.
If they continued to date, as Logan intended, wouldn’t he eventually be expected to kiss Tina again? Hand holding. Kissing. Spending the night. These were the progression of most relationships.
“You should tell her what’s really going on,” I said, after a moment.
“What?” Logan asked. Peeking open my eyes, the confusion on his face was apparent, scrunching up his brow. “Tina?”
“She likes you,” I said. “It isn’t fair to lead her on like this. She doesn’t have to know about me, but she should know that she doesn’t have an actual chance and that this is all a front.”
In a shitty situation, this was the least shitty thing they could do. It was also the only way to keep
keep clear boundaries, so that she would not try to kiss him again or worse. I shuddered, imagining Tina taking Logan to a club or something and grinding up against him.
“She won’t handle the rejection well,” Logan said, considering my suggestion, at least.
“Better sooner than later,” I told him. “The rejection was always going to happen.”
Logan hummed again, thoughtful this time. Tll think it over,” he said. “But for right now, there’s something else I’d rather be doing…”
“What’s that?” I asked, and was promptly silenced with another kiss.
Logan was sure taking a long time covering the bill. Tina considered herself to be a very patient individual, but how long would it take to pass over a credit card? Unless the help were being rude again.
At once, Tina decided that she had better investigate the matter herself. Logan was such a gentleman, he wouldn’t advocate for himself to the help. Truly, he needed Tina to intervene for him, if things were to ever run as smoothly as they ought.
With this in mind, Tina walked confidently toward the hostess station. Curiously, Logan wasn’t there. Perhaps he was in the bathroom.
Yet as Tina turned to go knock on the bathroom door, a flash of movement in the darkened, unused dining room caught her eye.
Following the movement, she entered the room.
Where she found her new boyfriend kissing her new friend.
Natalie.
That skank.
